So here it is my first post and I don't particularly care if anyone reads it..this is a diary for my extensive exploration into the much heralded yet muddled world of digital advertising in order to become a successful digital strategy planner in advertising.

I bought an i-touch. Bring on the iphone when visa issues allow me to hop on a phone contract but this'll do for now. I downloaded the best free apps and bought a few just to test them out and I must admit to being slightly underwhelmed. The potential is there but finding the right apps proves to be a tricky business. Try googling app reviews and try find a site that can even come close to the superb metacritic.com. This area needs an impartial review system that allows consumers to find what they want and I can't quite trust Apple with this job. I have to say this apps business is a work in progress but is unquestionably the future of digital technology use. The first question every website will have to ask itself from now on is "How do well do I run on the small handheld screen?"

But with every brand screaming to be a part of face book and twitter, you have to examine whether its a workable option. I took this from venture beat http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/23/the-plight-of-branded-ads-and-the-future-of-social-marketing/ "Verizon, Blockbuster, Nike and the New York Times have launched their own custom apps on Facebook. Their combined active userbase is just shy of 10,000. So if you were to turn all four into a single application, it wouldn’t even rank in the top thousand apps on the site." Wonder how many of the 10,000 actively use these apps? 1 in 10? possibly.. My immediate thoughts is an application has to be a quirky addictive game that offers prizes every week/month and that is winnable by anyone.. and is something that can only be played once a day by each individual user to prevent some users perfecting the art and playing it to death in order to win.. it also has to be backed by advertising in order to drive users and offer interesting prizes (obviously brand related) but maybe the best solution is for brands to piggyback onto existing successful apps and provide competitions within the app.. Mindjolt games seem to be doing very well.. could a brand get in on that action?

Well i reckon its time I tried out all these branded apps on facebook and the itouch.. Somehow the idea of playing games all afternoon doesnt excite me as much as I thought....